India : Found the remains of a giant prehistoric snake

Paleontologists in the Indian state of Gujarat have discovered the remains of the largest snake in Earth's history, which could have reached about 15 meters in length, making it the largest snake in the Cretaceous period.

It can be said that this snake is nominated to be the largest snake in the history of Earth. This was stated in an article published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports.

The discovery of the remains of this ancient snake in India, which belongs to the madzoid family, indicates that these ancient reptiles arose in the Indian subcontinent even before their collision with Asia, and after their merger they spread throughout the world and penetrated to North Africa, where reptiles were found from This family for the first time.

This conclusion was reached by a team of Indian paleontologists led by Sunil Bajpayee, a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in Roorkee, India, while studying a fossil recently discovered in the Banadaru lignite mine in the state of Gujarat in western India. Paleontologists discovered in the local gray rocks thirty very large vertebrae belonging to a giant snake from the madzoid family.

This family of reptiles appeared on Earth at the end of the Cretaceous period, long before the extinction of the dinosaurs, and the last reptiles became extinct at the end of the Ice Age. The madzoids family included a large number of giant snakes 6-8 meters long, which were similar in appearance, habitat and method of obtaining food with boas and anacondas, which strangle their victims with the help of powerful muscles.

It turned out that the snake discovered by Bajpai and his colleagues, which was named Vasuki indicus after the huge snake "Vasuki" from Indian mythology, was even larger in size, and its length was supposed to have reached 15 meters. Analysis of the structure of its vertebrae showed that the ancient Indian snake was more massive than "Madzoi." In Madagascar and the Egyptian "Gigantovia", it is one of the largest reptiles belonging to the madzoid family.

The discovery of Vasuki indicus is particularly interesting because it indicates the possible Indian origin of many African and Asian snake species, the researchers said. This fact confirms the hypothesis that Vasuki indicus lived in India even before its merger with Asia (i.e. 37-35 million years ago), while other species of the Madzoids family appeared in North Africa and South Eurasia only later. Professor Bajpai and his colleagues hope that subsequent excavations will help them confirm this hypothesis.